Discussion

The Local Butcher - Excellent new butcher in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto

I've been waiting for months for this place to open and it's exceeded expectations.

Owned and run by Chez Panisse alums. Specializing in local, pastured meats. Staff of extremely knowledgeable and experienced butchers and chefs. Beautiful space. They buy whole animals break them down in-house, dry age their beef, make their own charcuterie.

Real differentiating factor is that they cut the meat to order. You can choose thickness and it means everything is incredibly fresh.

Thanks for reporting the opening. It sounds like the setup is such that you could get practically any cut to order in advance. Do you have any idea what the chances of, without reserving ahead of time, what the chances of getting what is to me a relatively normal, but oddly not easy to find whole pork belly or shoulder is on walk in? And I assume it is too early to tell, but based on the facebook page, the sandwich of the days are cooked fresh meats. Do you know what sort of curing they're going for? I'm intrigued and will probably stop by some time this weekend to find out (though I still love my nearby Maggiano's).

They can basically get you anything if you pre-order, and they expect to have just about everything available when you walk in. I'd call ahead though - for example, they didn't have duck liver this week because they were using them all to make pate.

I stopped in - hadn't really thought about the place, and when I drove by to do other business, I saw it, and thought I'd check it out.

The first thing I noticed in the case were the cross cut short ribs - "asado de tira" style. I never thought I'd see grass-fed asado de tira in a butcher case in the US. This is what I often order when I'm in Buenos Aires. The cut in the case was a standard asado cut, but I wanted to try my skills with a special (thicker) cut - so they cut some to order, I specified the thickness, and voila, it is now at home, awaiting to see if I have the skills of an Argentine parrilla-master.

Also, not knowing what I was going to have for lunch, I bought the sandwich of the day (pork and melon on foccacia), which was tasty. $8.

Meat pricing was interesting - it is based not on specific cut, but what portion of the animal it comes from (basically, in 1/3s).

I'll be buying my meat there in the future. Everything is fresh and the people behind the counter really know their stuff. The priciness depends on the cut you're getting (front, middle, or back of animal). I got pork tenderloin for $8/lb. It's $10/lb at Berkeley Bowl and $4.49/lb at Safeway, and it was excellent quality, so I'm happy with the value.

This is definitively the best food establishment to open in Berkeley in the past decade. Possibly the best East Bay establishment to open in the past decade. Possibly the best place to buy meat in the entire Bay Area (I certainly haven't been somewhere better).

The Mrs. and I have been shopping here 2-3 times a week since it opened. Quality of the meat is incredible. The beef, lamb, pork, goat, and duck is all high-end restaurant quality and impeccably fresh. Nobody else has this selectionof of cuts - since they buy whole animals you can get whatever you want. The butchers are truly masters of their craft and they take customer service very seriously.

The charcuterie is wonderful - selection has expanded since they open. They poached the charcuterie chef from Oenotri in Napa. I'm particularly fond of the chicken giblet confit - sauteed with some broccoli or haricot verts makes for a fabulous side dish. Head cheese is spectacular. And I love the little touches like the fact that I can buy a jar of delicious, frozen demi-glace for $3. Better than the Dopo stand at the farmers' market? I dunno. Different, and very, very, good.

I find the pricing to be perfectly reasonable. Yes, you can find cheaper meat elsewhere. But there are plenty of places selling meat of a lower caliber for a similar or higher price.

I expect them to be open for a long, long time. They have filled a gap in the Berkeley food scene that we have all been begging for. For anyone who is serious about meat, it will only take one visit to make this a regular stop in your shopping routine.

The headcheese did turn out to be excellent. WHat I liked about it is it wasn't salty. Too much just tastes of salt. What was spectacular was that despite my complaint that I was told it couldn;'t be sliced in the slicer, the butcher hand-sliced it. That was the most impressive thing I've ever seen ... thin, even hand-hewn slices.

If people like the texture of Vietnamese headcheese it reminded me of that due to more crunch.

Wow, amazing place. We asked for suet to make mincemeat, the butcher came back with a whole piece with a gorgeous kidney still attached, so I got that too. Also got a couple of perfect-looking pig spleens, which I've been trying to find for ages to make a recipe that Fergus Henderson enthuses about in his first book. The spleens had the caul fat still attached, so I guess I'll make some crepinettes or something.

They're taking orders for Thanksgiving turkeys from BN Ranch. I asked about mutton, he said they can special-order it but it's a hard sell so one would have to get the whole thing.

If you walk down the little hall on the side there's a window into the walk-in.